Sure you can sell your stocks and bonds....now, when things are somewhat normal, but when it is SHTF time, good luck then trying to sell your stuff then with ALL the other people trying to do the same thing......at the same time.....good luck.
The reality is that dramatic market declines happen slowly, then suddenly. Who here is sage enough to accurately predict when a slow decline portends a collapse? The market mavens don't.
Most disgusting are the market gurus at Morningstar, etc. (all of whom are under 50 years old and highly compensated) who continued to shill "undervalued but great performer" stocks even in the midst of the recent catastrophic collapse. If you're 30-40 years old, perhaps you have the time and stomach to allow your savings to climb out of that hole. But retirees can't wait that long - we (a) must take RMDs from our 401k's, (b) must spend our retirement savings at their very depressed values, and (c) are very reluctant to get back into the equities markets for fear of further losses.
I'm in that "retiree" camp. I fired my "personal investment advisor" (Schwab), cashed in all of my equities in 2022 (taking a 15% hit) and put all of my holdings in T-bills, spacing them in 3-month "laddered" maturities so I can frequently either buy more T-bills or dip my toe back into the equities market. Employing that approach, my 2023 portfolio returned 5%, and during that same time frame the DOW industrials returned 5.3%. I know, the S&P 500 offers greater returns, but it also takes greater hits.
Married wage earners who have children in, or about to enter college are in a real pickle. If they (as I did) intend to pay for their kids' college degrees, what can they do? I paid for 3 bachelor's and 2 master's degrees out of savings and current earnings (no borrowings and no student loans for any of my kids). But that was 15 years ago. I doubt I could do that in today's business climate.
The Magnificent 7 would have been a great bet early in 2023, but who knew? [In fact, the term "Magnificent 7" wasn't even coined until those 7 stocks already achieved much/most of their gains.] Right now those stocks are overvalued. If the recession that market pessimists predict for 2024 actually occurs, those Magnificent 7 stocks wouldn't look attractive at all.
In my experience, most market "experts" are folks who, solely by looking in their rear-view mirrors, tell you what you SHOULD HAVE DONE. Unfortunately, those same experts failed to give advice that PREDICTED those dramatic returns.
Face it, the stock market is nothing other than a Las Vegas casino. As a retiree, I'm compelled to play (thanks to high inflation) so I place low-risk bets.
